The "Better Times" Project

Janis Ian & Friends

Janis Ian – First Take

Listen to or download the song.

Play this on the jukebox and listen to a lot of other versions too.
You can also download all the different musical versions, in the order they went up.

From Janis: This song started running around my head the day after John Prine died, as I was doing laundry. It stayed with me through the dryer cycle, and I moved from my head to a notebook about ten minutes later. It was finished half an hour later; I grabbed my phone and sung into it, tapping time with the pen I’d been using. I call this kind of piece a “miracle song” because they’re so rare in my life. I’ve probably written five songs out of 600+ that came this quickly, and I’m always humbled when it happens.

BETTER TIMES WILL COME
(Janis Ian)

Better times, better times will come.
Better times, better times will come.
When this world learns to live as one,
oh, better times will come

When we greet each dawn without fear
knowing loved ones soon will be near
When the winds of war
cannot blow any more
Oh, better times will come

CHORUS

Though we live each day as our last
we know someday soon it will pass
We will dance, we will sing
in that never-ending spring
Oh, better times will come

CHORUS